finally some meat in the freezer on the last day of firearms season

It has been a tough season for me this year no matter what type of weapon I was using. I have had plenty of misses and misfires with the flintlocks this season. I opted to hunt with the Gewer 98 carbine circa 1898, that my dad “sporterized” many years ago. This gave me a little more range then the shotgun with no slug barrel. My plan was to put Brent in his climbing stand location, and I would sit until around 9am at the back edge of the bedding area behind him. After that, I would get up and go uphill to find the property boundary for the park and circle his position hoping to drive something by him. The weather was super and I enjoyed my sit, watching the sunrise. I saw that same large coyote that is reddish brown in color, but it never gave me a shot or came very close. I saw her with a standard grey early in the bow season. No action, so I got up and started my slow stalk uphill. I found a boundary of blue painted trees and these tree-house style stands, but no park boundary. I thought it would be well marked, but maybe not on the south end?? I walked to the crest of the hill but no park boundary. Coming back down I decided to mark the stand and corner boundary location on my gps and get a couple pictures of it below:

While I was programming the information in to my gps, I hear the distinctive sound of many deer approaching from uphill. A line of 8 – 10 deer started coming down and crossing just downhill from me. I scooted toward the edge of the small cliff I was atop to get in better position. They approached and crossed into our property side (or close to it). I was going to wait until they passed me, and I was sure they were on the property, but felt the breeze on the back of my neck. It was now or never. I picked out what looked like the biggest doe in the bunch (no bucks I could see), and squeezed the trigger……..click……OH NO! MISFIRE!!! You must be kidding me! I worked the bolt and ejected the round. The doe was watching me now, but the line was moving so it stepped forward…other followed. By this time some of the lead deer were quite close to me and I was very tense. I saw another large one, but it had stopped with branches blocking the vitals. I was very nervous now….. I wondered how I had gotten myself in this predicament with a rifle that should be so easy to harvest a deer with! The big doe finally stepped forward in the opening and stopped, but now there was another deer directly behind it. The deer behind moved forward leaving the big gal slightly quartering toward me with a clear shot. I fired and the deer immediately turned a 180 and bolted at high gear downhill…but she kept going…..and going….and I watched her and her mates cross a valley and work up the adjacent hill about 200 yards away! What the heck! I missed??? Again??? I was pretty dejected as the shot was at most 45 yards. The closest deer, who was only about 12 yards from me and just below the rise I was on, was still there trying to figure out what had happened. I worked the bolt and she heard it and took off to join the rest. I could have probably killed that one with the bow if I was patient and she ended up that close. I was almost tempted to not even check because of the distance that doe covered seemingly in good health, but I approached the spot of the shot and found blood. Not a whole lot, and it petered out after about 25 yards. I saw where the group had crossed the valley, so I went there and immediately found more blood. Finally halfway up that hill I found her. The round took out her left lung and liver. I was thinking I rarely get deer running that far with the bow.

I had to drag her many hundreds of yards uphill with my 550 cord pull up rope (forgot my drag rope) to get back to the truck. I was pooped! She dressed out at 100 pounds. Brent and I enjoyed our traditional "heart and eggs" victory meal and joyously butchered the deer between jack Daniels shots for the rest of the afternoon. Mike Mongelli even came over to help in the final stages.

Angela and I attended a work sponsored dinner at a German restaurant in Hagerstown that evening and I had just enough time to get cleaned up. It was a German day all around from the rifle I used in this hunt, down to the dinner meal. Now I have some meat and a few more days to get another with the bow….or try to anyway…..